How reliable is cloud hosting?

In a cloud hosting environment a network of servers is used so that even one of the servers is down others will take care of it. But how credible is a cloud hosting service? I heard that if you are dealing with highly sensitive data it is better to have a dedicated server. That means Cloud hosting is prone to attacks by hackers, isn't it?

I just wanted to clarify that point. However, big companies like Google and Apple use cloud servers to store customer's data. Then it should have some quality I think.

Cloud hosting is becoming more and more popular, with many of the major companies using it to store there information these days.

While in the past I think there was some questions over the security aspect of it, I'm not sure if it was ever proved to be less secure, or if that was just a myth or rumour in the first place.

The fact that Cloud Hosting is popularly used as of this days, along is the possibility of its usage to be rampant. In terms of how a certain website is managed, cloud hosting is reliable in performing its task because it requires not only one server to handle a specific website. If the server will encounter problem, a back-up server takes its place. But the question is how reliable it is, with regards to data security or privacy concern. Because there is a lack of centralization given and there's less control on where the specific data is located, I doubt of its seucity.

Originally Posted by Rubie

there is a lack of centralization given and there's less control on where the specific data is located, I doubt of its seucity.

Yes, the above point strike me too. There will be less control due to lack of centralization. I think dedicated servers will be much more reliable in the long term. Even though it uses a network of servers to support each other, you can have a lot of examples on net about its high downtime percentage. I have no idea how this is happening when there is always an alternate server to support.